Purdue Mathematics IT

For security reasons the Department of Mathematics does not allow users from outside the purdue.edu domain to log into our change password web page.

If you are away from the purdue.edu domain and need to change your password you can us the SSH method as describe below. This only works if you know your math password and want to change it. If you have forgotten your password or it has been reset then this method will not work.

1. SSH into bers.math.purdue.edu.

   • Mac OS and Linux have SSH clients in the OS. See man ssh

   • For MS Window OS you can download a simple SSH program called PuTTY which can be downloaded from http://www.putty.org. PuTTY does not require any installation, just double click on the downloaded .exe file to run.

     • Set Connection Type is set to SSH.
     • Enter bers.math.purdue.edu in Host Name field.
     • Click on Open button.
     • At this point a window will pop up connecting you to UNIX computer bers.math.purdue.edu. If a PuTTY Security Alert window pops up then click Yes.

2. Login with your math username and password.

3. At UNIX command prompt enter the command passwd.

4. You will be prompted to enter your current password and then prompted to enter your new password twice.

   • Your new password should be at least 8 characters and contain the following:

     • at least 1 upper case character.
     • at least 1 special character.
     • at least 1 number.

5. The program will let you know if the new password was accepted. You can always CTRL-C out of the passwd program and execute again if you get into problems.

6. Once you have change your password you can type the command logout to exit the session.

BANNER is the new administrative software that maintains student, financial and personnel data. The impact of Banner will result in three important changes beginning Fall 2008:

(1) Course rosters will now be obtained online from Banner (or Blackboard Vista) . The old system SIS will no longer exist.

(2) Final course grades will now be submitted online via Banner (or Blackboard Vista) . The old green sheets will no longer exist.

(3) Plus or minus grades are now possible .
(a) All 100 and 200 level courses are required to give final grades that may include +/- grades (where necessary).

(b) For all single-section courses above 300, giving final grades that may include +/- (where necessary) is strongly recommended.

(c) All multi-section courses above 300 are required to have a consistent policy regarding the giving or not giving +/- final grades (where necessary).

Reminders:
# You must use your Purdue Career Account, not your Math account.

# You must be FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) certified in order to access BANNER (or Blackboard Vista). Certification information is available at: FERPA Certification

# Be aware that you will have access to student data, most of which you don’t need. Privacy and security should be maintained when accessing student records.

More information on Banner can be found through the departmental Banner webpage.

No. Never type your password into an email.

For more information see Is this a real email?.

“Phishing” is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and other sensitive information, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity (from Wikipedia).

Neither ITaP nor Math IT will ever ask you to reveal your password in an e-mail response, or over the phone, or in person. They will never send you a URL in an e-mail to click on that will ask you for your password; if necessary, they will give you instructions on how to get to a certain web page from the Math department home page or the Purdue home page. Additionally, neither ITAP nor Math IT will ever ask for any sensitive information (your date of birth, your Social Security Number, etc.).

Please feel free to email helpdesk@math.purdue.edu if you’re wondering about a specific email; however, if you have any suspicions about an email, it’s probably spam.

Have you ever forgotten your math password? Has your math password ever been reset due to that 120 day limit?

Instead of waiting for Math IT to reset a forgotten or unknown password, you can now reset it yourself!

All that’s required is that you provide the answers to some questions now. Later, when you wish to reset your math password, you’ll be asked those same questions and will need to provide the exact same answers.

1. Pick and answer the questions on this page: https://www.math.purdue.edu/mathnet/securitychallengequestions/
2. Forget your password.
3. Follow the instructions on this page: https://www.math.purdue.edu/resources/resetpassword to reset your password.

Generally speaking, program updates are important (many updates fix security problems), and while we attempt to automate as many updates as possible, some updates cannot be applied without an administrator’s password. When this situation arises, please send e-mail to helpdesk@math.purdue.edu and we will be happy to help you finish the install process.

Additionally, the many common applications available by opening Finder, selecting [Macintosh HD] and then selecting [Math Applications], are regularly updated by the Math Computer Systems staff.

Incoming Mail Servers

• IMAP: imaphost.math.purdue.edu — SSL Port: 993
• POP: pophost.math.purdue.edu — SSL Port: 995

Outgoing Mail Servers

• mailrelay.math.purdue.edu
• smtp.purdue.edu

Webmail

Webmail can be accessed at the following address:
webmail.math.purdue.edu

Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) doesn’t auto-discover printers on Math’s network to the same effect as 10.4.If you have administrative rights on your machine, follow this url:http://localhost:631/admin?op=config-serverand find these lines:

# Show shared printers on the local network.

Browsing On

BrowseOrder allow,deny

BrowseAllow all

You need to add a new configuration setting, so that this section of the config file looks like this:

# Show shared printers on the local network.

Browsing On

BrowseOrder allow,deny

BrowseAllow all

BrowseProtocols cups

• Click the “Save Changes” button, enter the username and password of a user with administrative rights and the cups server should restart.
• Reboot the computer, open up System Preferences, and then the “Print & Fax” pane.
• You should now be able to add the Math printers to your list of printers.
• Again, you need administrative rights to do this.

1. You need to create two files.
   1. ~/WWW/protecteddir/.htaccess
   2. ~/.htpasswd
2. An .htaccess file can be used to specify webserver settings at the directory or file level. Here is a sample .htaccess file:
   • AuthName “Display name of protected area”
     AuthType Basic
     AuthUserFile /homes/ivetter/.htpasswd
     #require user ivetter
     require valid-user
3. Your .htaccess file points to a file of usernames and passwords, commonly named .htpasswd
   1. To create your .htpasswd directory and place a user in the file, run a command like this:
      1. /opt/csw/apache/bin/htpasswd -c ~/.htpasswd username
      2. You’ll be prompted for the password twice.
      3. Voila! You should now have a username and encrypted password in the ~/.htpasswd file.
   2. To add another username to your .htpasswd file, run this command:
      1. /opt/csw/bin/apache/htpasswd ~/.htpasswd username2
4. Please note that your .htpasswd file can go anywhere in your home directory, but must be readable (but never writable!) by the ‘nobody’ user (or the world). Additionally, it’s best to not place the ~/.httpasswd directory under your WWW folder.

Email clients, like Mail.app and Thunderbird, like to know that they’re the only program accessing email stored on the local machine. This avoids potential email file corruption.

Sometimes, however, these email clients get confused and insist that another program is writing to their files. If this happens to you, you can assure Mail.app that its files are okay by removing a lock file.

From the command line, run this command:

rm ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index.lock

From Finder, navigate from your home directory, to Library, to Mail and drag the Envelope Index.lock file to the Trash.

Of course, sometimes Mail.app files really do get corrupted. If you continue to experience problems, you can reset Mail.app and wipe out all of its settings and start fresh*.

From the command line, run this command:

rm -rf ~/Library/Mail ; rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Now open Mail.app and (re)create your mail account.

* Sometimes a fresh start is a bad thing. If you use POP to grab your email from the server, you should not do this. If you have spent lots of time writing client side email filter/rules, you should not do this.